Six months on ... so much to learn, so little time!

My how time flys!

I have been so busy dealing with "age" issues and trying to fit as much as possible into every day that I haven't added to this blog in a while.

I have been captivated by a number of things, the Universe (and how GIGANTIC and UNKNOWN it really is) and learning more about the latest fang-dangled technology.

My renewed interest in all things Astrophysics related was sparked by the arrival of the mysterious (still) object that passed through our Solar System earlier this year, named imaginatively "3I Atlas" which stands for the third Interplanetary object discovered by the Astroid Terrestrial impact Last Alert System. Geez, Astronomers are such boring folk! Call me John, Harry, or even Russell but never 3I ATLAS!

I now regularly watch the multitude of Youtube videos from folks who deal with such a wide range of "The Universe" such as just how big is it, what is a Black Hole, Oh no that's not really a Black Hole, how long in reality it would take humans to reach various parts of our Solar System even when travelling at the speed of light and then, what happens to a mass when travelling at the speed of light and also the dilution of time. It is truly mind-boggling!

I have learned a lot but also have a myriad of new questions and I am no closer to building my "time machine"!

My electronic activities have revolved around new devices, specifically these "smart" speakers from Google and Amazon. 

Pretty interesting although if you lose power, all is lost. Give me a battery powered radio any day.

I must assume there are different levels of AI because (in my opinion) Google in particular should be called AL for Artificial Library. When I ask Google about something, it is obviously collecting information from various sites all over the internet but then it seems to not be very clever at presenting the information in a coherent manner or worst still, it goes off on a tangent totally unrelated to the original question. In my view, this is not intelligence but simply a massive library from which Google is plucking information. 

I tried (and am still trying) to see how "deep" Google is by asking "deep and meaningful" questions such as Were You Born? How Were You Made? Is There A God? and even suggested to Google that I "really really like you" in a suggestive manner - she then became very coy and basically shut down the conversation! Not an easy girl to pickup.

Sometimes the answers provided by Google (both using voice or online directly) are just plain stupid and I began to object to Google telling me that what I was looking for did not exist but "she" thinks I mean't this - Hey machine! I am the boss here, not you.

I have a reasonable level of proficiency in the English language and most of the time Amazon or Google understand me but my wife has English as her second language and these "smart speakers" have no idea what she is talking about sometimes. They need to work on the language skills abilities if these devices are ever going to hope to be "universal"

Still ... from the very early days of "speech generating chips" that I can remember (I think Texas Instruments were at the forefront in that area) and children's devices such as the old "Speak N Spell" machines, these contemporary voice controlled smart devices are very advanced in comparison but I don't see these things as being very "Intelligent"

You can have all the information humanity ever created in your library of knowledge but if you don't have the ability to think critically and look at alternatives, the machine is just a big library of knowledge but certainly not intelligent.

I had this sort of experience recently at an online store. It wouldn't proceed through to the purchasing section properly so I asked the AI assistance ... dumb ass thing told me to reset all my devices and try again tomorrow! Can anyone imagine what the future holds when Government services are all provided by AI assistants? It is scary quite frankly - give me a human any day.